Free Republic

The Legal Marijuana Now Party’s candidate in the race for the Second Congressional District has died, prompting a special election in February. Adam Charles Weeks died earlier this week, said Kevin O’Connor, the party’s candidate for U.S. Senate. “It’s a sad and sudden thing. We are pretty much taken aback,” he said. Weeks was facing off with Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Republican candidate Tyler Kistner to represent the district. That election will now be postponed. “The law is clear on what happens next,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement Thursday. “If a major party nominee...

Some Florida parents have turned to booze and weed to get through remote learning with their kids..."...parents...with joints in their hand and cigarettes in their mouth," Pride told Fox News. "Sometimes the joints are as big as cigars...Elysa Grossman, a Johns Hopkins University professor, and Susan Sonnenschein, a UMBC professor, polled parents earlier..."We found that parents who are stressed by having to help their children with distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic drink seven more drinks per month...

Democrats are taking an unprecedented gamble this month: voting to legalize cannabis at the federal level.The MORE Act would remove the penalties for marijuana, erase some criminal records and create grant programs for people hit especially hard by the war on drugs.Democrats say the timing is perfect: Support has been building for loosening marijuana restrictions over the last decade, with the most recent Gallup poll showing 66 percent of Americans favor legalization, including more than half of Republicans.The demands for racial justice that have ratcheted up following the killing of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd gave the bill the final...

More than 20 people lived on the property, which had several makeshift dwellings, a nursery and vehicles used in production, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said. Marijuana was processed to honey oil, a highly potent concentrate made by extracting the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis. All seven victims and witnesses were Laotian, Bianco said. Six people were found dead on the property, and a woman who was shot there died later at a hospital. Partially eaten pizza sat in boxes in a circular dirt driveway of the dilapidated two-bedroom house where the shootings occurred. Three cars were parked outside —...

Detectives on Tuesday investigated what prompted the Labor Day killings of seven people at an illegal marijuana growing operation in a small, rural Southern California community known for its horse ranches and nurseries along dirt roads

Deputies responded to an assault with a deadly weapon call in the 45000 block of Highway 371 just after 12:30 a.m. Monday... A woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds was found at the location and transported by paramedics to a local hospital for treatment...was later pronounced dead at the hospital. A search of the property revealed six additional victims, all suffering from gunshot wounds. All six of those victims also died from their wounds... Investigators say evidence at the location indicated it was being used as an illegal marijuana growing facility. More than 1,000 pounds of marijuana and several hundred...

A highly decorated U.S. Forest Service police dog suffered nine stab wounds during a marijuana raid in Northern California. But he survived after he was airlifted to a veterinary clinic, the agency said Friday. What's more, it's the second time the dog, an 11-year-old Belgian Malinois named Ice, recovered after being seriously injured on the job. Ice was wounded Aug. 27 in the Klamath National Forest south of the Oregon border when he was released to catch a suspect who had fled down a steep hill to escape the raid that unearthed more than 5,500 marijuana plants. He kept hold...

The bags were dropped by the "green drone" Telegram group, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis in Israel, with "free love" being the group's slogan. A drone dropped hundreds of bags of cannabis on Thursday afternoon over Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, attracting dozens of confused people, who rushed to pick up as many bags as they could carry. The bags of cannabis were dropped by the "green drone" Telegram group, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis in Israel, with "free love" being the group's slogan. Before dropping the cannabis over Tel Aviv, the group published a message...

The bill also would establish a fund for people impacted by drugs, impose a 5% tax on legal marijuana sales, and establish a process to expunge certain convictions and review sentences related to past federal marijuana offenses...Clyburn, D-S.C., told members that the vote is expected to take place in the September work period...According to an American Civil Liberties Union report earlier this year, Black Americans are 3.64 time more likely than White Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession...

Gov. Tom Wolf introduced a broad legislative agenda for the fall, including expanded access to child care, paid family leave for Pennsylvanians, recreational marijuana sales and a host of other items. The governor is asking lawmakers to change the law to allow sales of marijuana for recreational purposes, going beyond sales of medical marijuana. He’s also seeking more than $300 million in grants and loans for small businesses and tax breaks for the hospitality industry. Wolf announced a lengthy list of proposals to help the state recover from the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic damage to families and the...

President Donald Trump hosted a campaign rally in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the same night the Democratic National Convention was scheduled to kick off in Milwaukee. While Democrats instead opted for a virtual conference to avoid spreading the coronavirus, Trump drew a crowd of at least 1,000 people. In off-the-cuff remarks, Trump suggested to Republicans that if they wanted to win elections, they had to keep cannabis legalization off the ballot. Though the Trump Administration has attacked cannabis reform in behind-closed-doors proceedings and by blocking legislative action, this is the first time the President has made negative comments about cannabis in public....

A new study, led by researchers from University College London, is offering some of the first robust evidence showing how cannabidiol (CBD), a key compound in cannabis, increases cerebral blood flow in memory processing regions of the brain such as the hippocampus. CBD is just one of more than 100 different cannabinoids found in cannabis. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the compound most often associated with the plant’s psychoactive euphoric effects. CBD on the other hand is increasingly being found to confer a number of positive health outcomes. It recently became the first cannabis-derived compound ever approved by the FDA, used to...

In a separate study conducted by the same researchers, they previously found that cannabis use in pregnancy was linked to an increased risk of preterm birth. The women involved in that study often used other substances like tobacco, alcohol, and opioids. "Considering those findings, in the current study the researchers specifically looked at 2,200 women who reported using only cannabis during pregnancy, and no other substances. They found that babies born to this group still had an increased risk of autism compared to those who did not use cannabis," per the press release.

what they call the largest study ever done, researchers found using marijuana while pregnant may increase the risk that a child will develop autism. "Women who used cannabis during pregnancy were 1.5 times more likely to have a child with autism," said study author Dr. Darine El-Chaâr, a maternal fetal medicine specialist and clinical investigator at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada. These are not reassuring findings. We highly discourage use of cannabis during pregnancy and breastfeeding," she said. Past studies have shown the use of marijuana during pregnancy is linked to low birth weight, impulsivity, hyperactivity, attention issues and...

Newly-released data shows the majority of Colorado’s youth are participating in healthy behaviors and that marijuana use among school-aged children has not significantly changed since legalization. The data comes from the bi-annual statewide Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS) conducted last year with more than 100,000 students participating. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) released the results of the survey Monday. The survey shows marijuana use among school-aged kids has stayed relatively flat since legalization, but the way kids are using marijuana has changed. In 2019, 20.6% of youth said they use marijuana compared to 19.4% in 2017....

The American Heart Association is warning that marijuana use shows “substantial risks” and “no benefit” in cardiovascular health, and its deputy chief science and medical officer is recommending that people “not smoke or vape any substance, including cannabis products, because of the potential harm to the heart, lungs and blood vessels.” Marijuana contains the psychoactive chemical THC (which gives users the “high”), as well as more than 100 compounds (cannabinoids, such as the popular cannabidiol, or CBD ) chemically related to THC that are still not entirely understood. Studies suggest that they inhibit some enzymes in the body that can...

Freedom Leaf, Inc. moves toward a major revenue increase with the launch of the Hempology brands and Green Market Europe LAS VEGAS, NV–(Marketwired – Nov 2, 2017) – Freedom Leaf, Inc. (OTCQB: FRLF) is very pleased to announce that Paul Pelosi Jr. has accepted our invitation to become Chairman of Freedom Leaf’s Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Pelosi will guide FRLF in corporate governance, sustainable revenue generation, and investor relations. Freedom Leaf, Inc. will launch an Initiative to become the model for corporate governance in the cannabis and hemp sector. Mr. Paul Pelosi Jr. is the son of U.S....

She popped her pop in the privates — when he wouldn’t share a few puffs of pot. A Florida woman was arrested on Thursday for allegedly attacking her father and trying to grab his genitals after he refused to let her smoke his medical marijuana, The Smoking Gun reports. Dakota DiRienzo, 22, allegedly lit up with anger because her dad, Luigi, had been sharing his pot with pals but not with his own daughter, the outlet reported. They came to blows at his trailer park home in the town of Sebastian, just north of Vero Beach, cops alleged. “Dakota attacked...

[...] No matter what happens federally, it's unlikely that marijuana's scheduling will be changed anytime soon. This means state-level cannabis legalizations will continue to play a major role in growing the U.S. pot industry.This coming November, residents of three states are guaranteed to be voting on a cannabis measure in their respective states. However, four additional states may join.New Jersey: Will be on the ballot While there's no such thing as a lock when it comes to voting on the legalization of marijuana, New Jersey's constitutional amendment that aims to legalize adult-use marijuana appears to have a very good chance...

A group seeking to legalize recreational marijuana in Montana says it has gathered enough signatures to put the question to voters in November's election. The ballot committee, New Approach Montana, says it has turned in 52,000 signatures in support of a ballot initiative to allow retail marijuana sales at a 20% tax rate. Organizers also turned in more than 80,000 signatures for an accompanying constitutional initiative that would allow the legal age buying age of marijuana to be set at 21. The committed collected signatures from all 100 state House districts, spokesman Pepper Petersen said, all while taking precautions to...